


The Birth of Resistance

by Chie (Chierafied)



Series: Fandom Events JL [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bandits & Outlaws, Breaking and Entering, Established Relationship, F/M, First War with Voldemort, Marauders, Robin Hood References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 03:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16845958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chierafied/pseuds/Chie
Summary: Peter Pettigrew had betrayed them and handed Dumbledore over to Voldemort. In the time of a new and dark regime, however, a small resistance rises.





	The Birth of Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> Jilychallenge February 2017.  
>  **Theme:** Fantasy. **Prompt:** Robin Hood AU

Remus Lupin pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and turned to his friends, his face grim and pale in the bright torchlight.

“It’s worse than we thought,” he said, tossing a copy of the Daily Prophet onto the plush red sofa where James was sitting.

Sirius Black snorted from the armchair in the corner and took a generous gulp from the bottle of Firewhisky he was nursing.

He’d been doing that a lot since Peter had betrayed them and handed Dumbledore over to Voldemort.

Lily let him be; at least she had managed to talk him out of going after Peter – even if she’d had to slap him and scream he’d be no use to anyone dead or locked up in Azkaban.

James picked up the newspaper. His face contorted with anger as he read the headline.

“Muggleborn registry?” he spat.

Lily shrugged, but didn’t look up from the cauldron perched before her. “We knew it was coming,” she said, calm and matter-of-fact.

“Still, I didn’t expect him to move so quickly,” Remus said. He wiped the map clean and set it on the side table by the door.

“I guess patience isn’t one of Lord Moldyface’s virtues,” Sirius commented.

“There’s not a single virtuous cell in You-Know-Who’s body,” Lily retorted, stirring her potion. “But he has been waiting for this for a long time, he’s not gonna waste a second now that he’s finally in power.”

James was still reading through the article, a scowl darkening his features.

“People must have already started to flee.”

“We did,” Remus said glumly, plopping to sit down next to him on the sofa.

“I wonder if we could help them,” James said.

“What, sneak a bunch of Muggleborns into our glorious headquarters?” Sirius asked, waving his hand to indicate the room.

“The Room of Requirement makes for excellent headquarters,” James countered. “The fact that it’s right under the Death Eaters’ noses makes it all the better. But no, we can’t really turn this into a refugee centre.”

“Exactly,” Sirius said. “There isn’t much we could do anyway.”

“I don’t know,” Lily said thoughtfully. “With some proper organisation and planning, we might be able to set up a safe house somewhere – maybe even help smuggle some of the people out of the country. Purebloods are always underestimating Muggles, I’m sure the Ministry’s not watching every airport in the country.”

“Sweet ideas, Ginger, but you’re not being practical,” Sirius scoffed. “How the hell would we pull off something like that? With what money? The ministry has repossessed all our accounts. And as great as the Room of Requirement is, I doubt it can provide us with cold hard cash.”

“I got it!” James looked up, his face more animated than it had been in a week.

“Got what?”

James beamed at Remus. “Robin Hood!”

Remus grimaced. “Prongs, no…”

Sirius arched his eyebrow. “Robin what now?”

“Robin Hood,” James repeated, so excited he knocked his glasses askew by accident. “The bloke Muggles have all these stories and legends about. He stole from the rich and gave it to the poor.”

“You’re saying we should steal money from the Death Eaters?”

“They repossessed ours, technically we’d be taking back what already should belong to us,” James said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Besides, it’s perfect, don’t you see?”

“No, not really,” Sirius replied, taking another swig of Firewhisky.

“You’ll be Friar Tuck, since you’re always carrying that bottle these days.”

Remus groaned.

“I have no clue what you’re babbling about,” Sirius told James.

“Lily – Will Scarlet.”

“Better than ‘Ginger’,” she replied, bemused.

James turned to Remus with a grin. “Little John!”

“Hilarious,” Remus John Lupin deadpanned. He slanted a look at Lily, bent over her cauldron. “Lily, your husband is losing it, please talk some sense into him.”

“I don’t know, I think it could work,” she said slowly, leaning back in her chair. “I mean you guys are as good as professional sneaks. James and Sirius are unregistered Animagi and that might come in handy. We’re all fairly gifted, magically speaking… And we have the Invisibility Cloak and the two-way mirrors.”

“As exciting as this sounds, Peter’s probably already told them about us being Animagi,” Sirius spat, taking another long sip from his bottle.

“I don’t think he has,” Lily countered. “He might be a rotten bloody coward, but he’s not stupid. He didn’t betray us because he agrees with their ideology, he betrayed us because he didn’t think we’d win. If he told them you were unregistered Animagi, he’d come too close to revealing he’s one, too. He wouldn’t risk showing them all his cards when he’s in this to survive.”

Sirius put down his bottle. “You make a convincing argument, Ginger.”

“Stop calling me that, you arse. Anyway, on top of everything else, in three more weeks we’ll have a fresh batch of Polyjuice Potion,” Lily continued, nodding at her simmering cauldron. “If we’re going to do this, there’s a bunch of other potions I could prepare for us, too – the Room of Requirement gave us ample ingredient stores.”

“My wife.” James beamed. “As brilliant as she is beautiful.”

“Ugh, get a room!” Sirius retorted.

“You can’t be serious!” Remus hissed at them, his voice strained; almost pleading. “You can’t compare marauding at school to breaking into people’s houses!”

“Why not?” Sirius was perched on the edge of the armchair now, obviously warming up to the idea. “I think Scarlet’s making a convincing argument here, John my lad. We do have ample experience in lawbreaking.”

“Cheers, Tuckster.” Lily smirked.

“Have you all gone insane?” Remus demanded.

“Come on, Moony, I’m not saying we should try to pull a heist on Gringotts or anything like that,” James spoke in a reasonable tone of voice. “I’m just saying – let’s knock those bastards down a peg or two. Call it a redistribution of wealth: use the money to help the people who  _need_  it.”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Lily said, turning to meet Remus’ haunted eyes. “You’re a werewolf, I’m a Mudblood, James and Sirius are known Bloodtraitors. We’re already outlaws. Might as well make the most of it.”

Remus stared at the three of them, all looking expectantly at him. His face was pinched, his shoulders slumped.

“Fine,” he said, scowling at his friends. “I guess we can’t let them get away with killing Dumbledore. But if we’re doing this, we’re gonna do it properly. With a plan.”

“Listen to our Moony,” Sirius grinned at James.

James grinned back. “Just like old times, eh?”

 

* * *

 

They Apparated to a narrow moonlit lane with an audible _POP_ and scrambled apart, their wands pointing into every direction. But the night was still and silent; undisturbed even though their wildly racing hearts pounded in their ears.

Slowly, they lowered their wands and drew together into the shadow of a tall manicured hedge lining the lane.

James dug the mirror out of his pocket.

“Lily,” he whispered into the darkness. “We’ve arrived, all clear.”

“Be careful,” his wife whispered back, her green eyes flashing in the mirror. “And keep me posted.”

James nodded, then stuffed the mirror back to his pocket.

“All right, gentlemen,” he said with false cheer, “the night isn’t getting any younger.”

His fingers trembled a little as he fumbled for his Invisibility Cloak. He hadn’t been this nervous since his first date with Lily.

“Do not make me come and save your arses,” Remus told them, the worry in his eyes giving lie to his disgruntled tone.

“We’ll be fine, Moony,” Sirius said lightly.

Remus did not reply, only gave them one terse nod before using the Disillusionment Charm on himself and drawing deep into the dark shadows of the high yew hedge.

James turned and found a big black dog sitting in the middle of the lane, its pink tongue lolling and its tail wagging soundlessly.

James grimly squared his shoulders and threw the Invisibility Cloak over himself.

“Let’s go,” he said, following Sirius down the narrow lane. They took a right onto a wide branching driveway and finally came to a halt before elaborate wrought iron gates.

“Perimeter ward?” James whispered.

Sirius nodded.

“Dismantle or trigger?” James asked.

Sirius gave two quiet barks.

“You’re right, that’s safer,” James agreed. He pulled out the mirror.

“Lily?”

Lily’s face appeared, wrought with concern.

“What is it, is everything all right?”

“It’s fine, we’ve barely even started. Just wanted to point out that we might want to get a spare wand for our future excursions.”

“Good point, I’ll make a note of that – in countering complex charmwork there’s a real risk of leaving a magical signature behind.”

“Exactly. For now, we’re gonna trigger the wards.”

“Don’t get caught!”

Lily’s face vanished and James put away the mirror.

“The show’s all yours,” he told Sirius.

The dog’s tongue lolled with laughter, then he squeezed through an opening in the ironwork of the gate and sprang into the yard, starting to give one startled white peacock a merry chase.

The next seconds were tense and seemed to stretch into infinity; then a man ran up a gravel path, his wand pointed. He stopped when he saw Sirius and cursed under his breath.

“A bloody stray,” he sneered and aimed a jinx at the dog. Sirius dodged it without trouble.

“Go on,” the man shouted, “scram!”

The gate creaked open, the perimeter ward temporarily silenced. Sirius ran out onto the driveway just as James, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, slid in through the gate. He took a deep and quiet calming breath as he watched the man strut into the looming darkness.

They were in!

James cast one lingering glance at Sirius, sitting on the other side of the gate, and the excitement bubbling in his chest fizzled out.

No.  _He_  was in.

His friends were close by and ready to rush to his aid, but from this point on he was on his own. Suddenly, James keenly felt the stark contrast between this moment and all those times they’d huddled under this very same cloak together.

Don’t be stupid, James told himself. You’re not kids anymore, we wouldn’t even properly fit under the cloak if we  _were_  together. You’re prepared enough, you’ve been planning this for weeks. Now go and get it done!

James went.

* * *

 

In the quiet dead hours of early morning, Lily paced the seventh-floor corridor until the door finally appeared on the bare wall opposite to Barnabas the Barmy’s tapestry. She slipped into the room, even as the effects of the Polyjuice Potion were starting to wear off.

Despite the early hour, she found her friends both wide awake and in a cheerful mood.

James pulled away from patting Sirius’ back and rushed over to Lily, winding his arm around her shoulders.

“How did it go?” he asked, guiding her to the sofa.

“Everything went without a hitch, the Muggleborn kid and his parents are on a plane to Canada. They kept thanking me for buying them the tickets.”

Lily had barely sat down when James handed her the paper.

“Remus snuck out to get this,” he said.

Lily eyed the Daily Prophet, noting the small headline in the corner of the front page: _Handsome reward offered to help capture the Malfoy Manor Burglars_.

“Huh, and here I thought they’d want to keep it hushed,” she mused aloud.

“Too outraged to hide their wounded pride I bet,” Sirius grinned.

“How did your night go?” she asked Sirius.

“It was a success. Got Mundungus to agree to fence some of the items. I don’t trust that git, though, we need to put him under a watch.”

“Agreed. When he lets us know he’s found a buyer, one of us should take on the disguise while another hides under Invisibility Cloak and sticks to Mundungus,” Remus said.

“That’s a good plan,” Lily nodded, letting her head drop to rest against James’ shoulder. “Have you made any plans on the safe house yet while I was away?”

“Obviously we can’t use any properties that could be linked back to us,” Remus said. “And we should also avoid having it near wizarding communities.”

“I think we should have it somewhere in London,” James said. “Hiding amongst a crowd would be safer than choosing a remote location.”

“Well, as long as it wouldn’t be near Diagon Alley or the Ministry, I think that could be a good idea. Let’s look into property in Muggle London, then?”

Remus and Sirius nodded.

“At least we’ve narrowed it down now. I hope we can get it underway quick to help everyone.” Lily sighed.

“Don’t worry, love,” James said, stroking her hair. “The days seem dark, but we can do a lot of good with this money.”

“I can’t believe I’m admitting this,” Remus said wryly, “but I agree. This ‘redistribution of wealth’ was not such a bad idea.”

“Exactly,” Sirius said, his grey eyes aglow. “This is just the beginning.”


End file.
